The popularity of observatories or aquariums for the display of living aquatic animals is well recognized. Numerous facilities have been constructed to provide a public display of marine life such as the open-air, tank installations in the state of Florida and the various enclosed aquariums. Many such facilities often operate under standing-room-only conditions.
Submerged off-shore facilities have been provided, to allow visitors to observe marine life, both as contained in tanks therein, as well as in the surrounding sea water. An example of such an installation will be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,532 issued Feb. 5, 1980 to Kahn. Another example of an off-shore facility is shown in British Pat. No. 23,335 dated Oct. 3, 1913. In both of the above examples, visitors use a stairway to pass between connected, above-water and below-water observation levels.
The present invention offers an improvement over the above mentioned public facilities and wherein, an on-shore building construction is provided, having a plurality of separate living or other type of units, arranged in a unique manner in combination with an adjacent containment of water whereby, residents or users are provided with the ultimate in close association with marine life residing therein.